


December 4th: One Good Memory

by LittleSweetCheeks



Category: Criminal Minds (US TV)
Genre: AU, Gen, No Haley, ProﬁlersForChristmas2017, Team as Family, no Jack
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-03
Updated: 2017-12-03
Packaged: 2019-02-03 01:06:35
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,341
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12737928
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LittleSweetCheeks/pseuds/LittleSweetCheeks
Summary: AU- Hotch is single, never met Haley, never had Jack.Everyone deserves one good memory.





	December 4th: One Good Memory

**Author's Note:**

  * In response to a prompt by Anonymous in the [FA_ProfilersForChristmas2017](https://archiveofourown.org/collections/FA_ProfilersForChristmas2017) collection. 



“So.” JJ sank down into her seat beside Emily on the jet. The team had finished a case in Wyoming and were stuck waiting for snow and ice to be cleared so they could take off the evening before Christmas Eve. “Best Christmas memory?”

“Me?” Emily looked up from her book.

“Sure.” JJ poured out a bag of mini oreos and pushed some toward her friend.

She shook her hair away from her face and thought. “I’d have to say when we went to Vienna when I was a teen. I remember seeing the Upper Belvedere Palace all lit up and the markets.” She sighed. “We collected punch mugs and walked around looking at the lights. There was just so much, and it was all beautiful.” She picked up a cookie. “I think it was the only time my mother and I weren’t at one another’s throats.”

“It sounds it.” JJ replied before turning to Rossi who was across from her. “How about you?”

“I don’t know.” He shrugged. “There’s been a lot of good ones.”

“Oh, come on, Rossi. There has to be a best one you always think back on.” She pressed.

Dave sighed, giving in easily. “Between leaving school and joining the military, I spent a winter in Italy. Family took me around and made sure I saw all the sites like Naples and Venice, Vatican City of course, and then we spent time in Sicily. I was with family I never got to see again.” He automatically turned to Morgan who was on his left. “You’re next.”

“I thought JJ was running this show.” He turned to her and she just shrugged. “Fine. The Christmas before my Pops died, he took the girls and I to go ice skating. We were horrible, but he kept pickin’ us up and dustin’ us off and we were just laughing. Once we were about froze solid, he loaded us up and took us for hot cocoa and then out to the burbs to look at the lights on the fancy houses.”

“Anything for his kids.” Rossi stated.

“Yeah. He’d do anything to make us happy.” Morgan smiled, a faraway look to his gaze. After a moment of silence, he blinked and drew a breath, pressing a button on the laptop they kept open. “Hey, Baby Girl.”

“What can I do for you?” She appeared on the screen, hair filled with red and green baubles and ribbon.

“Best Christmas memory, Mama.”

“Hmm.” She thought a minute. “When I was seven, I wanted a pony. Any time someone asked me, that’s the only thing I wanted. Letters to Santa? A pony. We lived in a fourth-floor apartment, there was nowhere for a pony to live, but I wanted a pony. My parents found this riding stable and paid for riding lessons.”

“I didn’t know you could ride.” Morgan said, surprised.

“Oh, I can’t. I was horrible. Riding is hard and horses are really tall.” She grinned as everyone giggled. “I’m guessing I’ve been looped in on a thing then?” She saw them nod. “Who’s gone?”

“You, me, Rossi, and Prentiss.”

“Oh! JJ next!” She clapped.

JJ ducked her head. “Fine, fair’s fair. I’d have to say my first Christmas home from college. My parents went all out like I was little again. It was a lot of fun.” All eyes turned to their next victim. Hotch was sitting on the couch across from them, almost blending in to the darkness.

He slowly looked up and then from person to person. “I-I don’t really have much.”

“Come on, Hotch.” JJ rolled her eyes at him playfully. “Give us something here.”

He chewed his lip. “Not Christmas Day but… Mother always hosted the firm party at our house and I was dressed up in a suit and tie and paraded around. My job was to be seen and not heard.” His eyes drifted down to the file in his lap. “I knew it was a whole evening of Father not…” He trailed off. “Partners and their wives would give me sweets, tell me how well-mannered I was and that a growing boy as slight as I was wouldn’t be hurt by a bit of extra cake.” A smile flitted across his face before vanishing again. “The food was delicious and the wrapping on the presents was always so beautiful.” He finished speaking, keeping his eyes down.

Dave, deciding to break the uneasy silence that filled the cabin after his friend’s stilted story, craned his neck around to find their youngest. “How about you, Reid?”

“Me?” His head popped up from a book.

“Yeah. Best Christmas memory.”

He thought a minute, mentally filing through every Christmas he could remember. “Maybe when I was little? Before my mom’s symptoms took over and my dad left? We had a little tree on the table one year, but we didn’t do lights or Santa or anything. Later, my mom was scared of anything related to Christmas, so we didn’t celebrate.”

“No presents?” JJ asked.

“No. I learned about Christmas at school and everything, but we didn’t do any of it. On the day the schools had Christmas parties I stayed home. I didn’t have a toy to exchange and I had no idea what to buy for someone else anyway.”

“So…you’ve never really celebrated Christmas?” Emily was leaned forward on the table, cookies forgotten.

Spencer shook his head. “I guess not, no.” Burying his face back in his book, he missed the exchanged glances of the group sitting at the table and over the laptop.

==

Having dumped his things on his desk, Aaron’s mind continued to race over his Christmas’s past. Home, for him, had not been a place of peace and care, but a place of fear and injury. Staring out the window, he watched the others happily joking around in the bullpen, teasing and enjoying that they were all headed home for a few days’ break to be with family. Well, most of them would be with family, he thought. JJ surely had plans with her parents whom Hotch recalled were in town and Morgan would be heading to Chicago. Experience told him Emily would be visiting her mother and Dave always went off to do whatever it was Dave did. He tracked Reid slipping in and around the others, silently grabbing his things and disappearing again without anyone taking notice of him.

Emily watched Reid leave through the glass doors before changing the discussion back. “So, do you really think we can pull this all off in time?”

JJ looked over the list of Christmas traditions in her hand. “If we get PG to start baking and if we talk to Rossi, I think we’ll manage.” She glanced up to his office. “I’ll talk to him. What should we do about Hotch?”

The brunette shrugged. “Maybe we should do this for him too. He doesn’t talk much about his past but that story sounded…”

“Like he was skating over some details?” Morgan finished.

“Yeah.” JJ frowned. “I’ll talk to Rossi, you two talk to Penelope?” She waited for them to nod before climbing the stairs, passing Hotch’s office and glancing in, taking note of how he was hunched over his desk now. Knocking on Rossi’s door, she waited until he called her in before she explained the plan to him.

==

It was late Christmas Eve. Aaron was sitting alone in his apartment, a drink in his hand, staring at his small Christmas tree. It was the time of year when he wished he had a family, someone to come home to, to celebrate with. He was totally alone.

A heavy knock on his door made him frown and glance at the clock. It was too late to be just anyone, he thought as he stood to answer it. “Dave?”

The older man pushed in. “Pack a bag with comfortable clothes, you’re coming to my place tonight.”

Aaron didn’t move. “Why?”

“Because I said so.” He took Aaron’s glass. “Go. And put on something comfortable but decent. Like that green sweater I know you have.”

Tossing his friend a questioning look, Hotch did as he was ordered.

==

Dave’s house was totally decked out as they pulled up. Every window and roofline was coated in bright lights, his chimney was wrapped as well. The front porch glowed, every post and rail lit up festively. Doors had wreaths, windows had candles and bows. One side of the snow-covered lawn had a life-sized Santa in a well filled sleigh being pulled by nine fairly lifelike, miniature, reindeer. The lead sporting a glowing red nose. The other side of the front walk was now home to a similarly sized and no less realistic looking nativity scene. The walk itself was flanked on both sides with lights and candy canes. It made the who house and lawn look downright magical.

“What’s all this?”

Dave shrugged. “Just a little something festive. Let’s get inside where it’s warm.”

If Aaron had thought the outside looked magical, then he was left without words once he stepped inside. Every inch of every surface he could see was covered in lights and fake snow and holiday figures. Beside the fireplace, which had a fire going, was the tallest Christmas Tree Aaron thought he’d ever seen inside someone’s home. “Wow.”

“Fourteen feet tall.” Dave answered the unasked question. “If you sit on the floor right in front of it, you’ll feel about four or five again.” He nudged him forward. “Go check it out.”

Hotch slowly walked into the living room, taking in the sights and smells of the holiday. He stopped when he found the lower half of what he guessed was Reid sticking out from under the tree. “Reid?”

The youngest agent waved one barely visible hand at his boss. “Hey. Have you ever laid under a tree and looked up the inside like this?” His voice was filled with amazement.

“No.” He watched as Spencer shimmied out and sat up, bits of greenery sticking out of his hair.

“Come look. It makes the tree look even more huge!”

Dave watched from the hallway as Aaron considered for a moment before slowly crawling to the floor and joining Spencer underneath. Leaving them to their fun, he sauntered to the kitchen where the rest of the team was still working. “How are things going in here?”

“Everything is set for tomorrow.” Garcia answered. “The cookies are about ready to be iced and the Cocoa is done. Where are they?”

“Under the tree.”

“Both of them?” JJ asked.

Dave nodded and then led them back to the other room. After watching the two men for a few minutes, he finally spoke. “We have cocoa and cookies to ice if you two want to get out from under there.”

Slowly, they both emerged. Aaron was surprised to see the rest of the team and a little embarrassed they’d seen him acting so silly. “Cookies?”

Garcia nodded, bouncing in place. “All the best holiday shapes and colors. I made everything from scratch so come help decorate.”

The evening had flowed smoothly, everyone had been relaxed and had been having a good time playing in the icing as they decorated. When the hour drew near to midnight, Emily and JJ started working on getting the cookies finished and laid out to dry while Morgan vanished somewhere with Garcia.

Rossi turned to his best friend. “Everyone is staying tonight. JJ and Prentiss are taking the back room upstairs and Morgan and Garcia are taking the front. So that leaves Reid with the mini suite that has a double bed and I’ll be in my own room, of course. You can either share with Reid or me.” He watched Aaron start to open his mouth before cutting him off. “Those are your only options, Aaron.”

Hotch sighed. “With you I guess. Sharing a king would be miles better than a double.”

He patted his shoulder. “Of course. Come on, we’ll let the kids clean up in here. Let’s go to bed.” He led Aaron into the master suite, shutting and locking the door behind them.

==

Christmas Morning woke Aaron with the smell of cooking food. Rolling onto his back in the bed, he stretched out and rolled only to discover he was alone in the room. Remembering the rest of the team was around somewhere, he grabbed his bag and headed into the attached bathroom to wash up and get changed.

Upstairs, Spencer was the last one to wake up and stumble out of his room, only having bothered to use the bathroom and brush his teeth, skipping shaving or getting dressed. Heading for the stairs, he stopped at the railing that overlooked the main room of the first floor. The house smelled of food and coffee, the tree was lit up, and the floor beneath it was bursting with gifts that hadn’t been there the night before.

Stumbling to the kitchen, Spencer took in all the activity. “What’s going on?”

Five faces turned toward him.

“What’s all this?”

“Breakfast.” Rossi finally answered. “Go sit at the table, we’ll finish bringing it in while I go find Aaron and make sure he hasn’t snuck out a window or something.” Snickers followed him out of the room. He found his friend just as he was leaving the bedroom. “Come eat.”

Aaron caught his eye on the gifts piled where he and Reid had been lying the night before. “Is everyone still here?”

“Yes. Go sit in there with Reid, we’re about done bringing the food out.” He waved him toward the dining room.

Aaron tossed him a curious look but did what he was told, surprised when he found the table already filled with many breakfast foods. He was still taking in the feast as the rest of his team appeared and added dishes to the table. As everyone took a seat and plates began to be filled, he couldn’t help but smile at how normal it felt to be together. He filled his own plate with biscuits and gravy and a pile of bacon and tucked in.

Across the table, Spencer added ketchup to his eggs and sausage, letting some drizzle over his cheese laden hash browns. The sheer volume of food almost reminded him of the buffets in Vegas. “So, what else is happening today? I saw all the presents in there that weren’t there last night. Are we supposed to believe Santa brought them?” He grinned cheekily.

“No.” Emily swatted his arm, chuckling. “Garcia is going to work on Christmas dinner, JJ and Rossi are going to help. As for the rest of us, I think there’s just enough snow out back to make a snowman or two.”

“We’re building a snowman?” Aaron’s head popped up from his meal in surprise. He couldn’t remember ever building a snowman.”

“Finish eating and we’ll go out and get started.” She bossed, softening it with a smile.

==

Fingers frozen, Aaron stopped and looked across the yard at the snowman Morgan and Reid were building. It was a bit lopsided and it’s stick arms didn’t match. Beside it, Reid looked cold and miserable. Looking down at the snow in his hand, Hotch got an idea. With a grin, he packed the snow into a ball and tugged Prentiss around their much more stable creation before lobbing his snowball across the yard, missing Reid and the snowman by inches but nailing the back of Morgan’s now bare head. “Oops.” He commented softly, eliciting a giggle from his building partner.

“Why’d you hit _him_!?” She yanked him down.

“I was aiming for Reid!” He whispered back as they both began to frantically build more ammo.

“He played football, I’ve seen him throw!” She hissed as a snowball whizzed over their heads.

“Well, I’ve seen Reid throw, so we really only have one target to worry about.” He popped up at launched another ball, earning a yelp as it hit it’s intended target this time.

“I can’t believe you started this!” She popped up and launched two balls.

“It sounded fun. Now, help me win.”

Shouts and laughter from outside drew the three cooks to the window. Rossi placed a hand on JJ’s shoulder. “This was a perfect idea. Look at them out there, having a good time.”

She leaned into his arm. “Maybe in the future when they are asked about a best Christmas memory, they will have one.”

“Yeah.” His voice caught. “They just needed to find the right family.” Looking for a change of topic, he turned back to the food. “How are we doing on time?”

Garcia checked the oven. “We have about an hour. If we want to get them all inside and dried off, we could do presents first. Then everyone can warm up and calm down before we eat.”

Rossi pressed a noisy kiss to her temple before heading to the back door. “Hey! Come in and get warm! Let’s open some presents while we wait for diner to finish.”

==

Aaron was propped up against the headboard in Rossi’s bed still fully dressed in dark jeans and fleece sweater. Wine had been copiously consumed during dinner and afterward, so the whole team had decided to stay one more night. He had been amazed at the amount of presents he’d gotten from everyone else and felt bad that he hadn’t purchased them something. He smiled slightly, thinking of how Reid had gotten stuck crawling under the tree trying to fish gifts out and how Morgan had grabbed him by the ankles to rescue him. Dave’s laugh had filled to house only to be joined by the laughter of the women. The whole day had been warm. The warmth of the food and the fire, but also the warmth of the atmosphere, the family and love. He looked up when Dave entered and pushed the door shut with a heavy sigh.

“Everyone is put where they belong.” He shuffled toward his dresser for pajamas. “Spencer is totally passed out already, sprawled out over the bed. JJ and Em were giggling about something so I didn’t go in, just checked on them through the door.” He sank down on the edge of the bed, dropping his pajamas beside him. He turned so he could see Hotch. “Derek and Penelope were in one bed watching a movie. I told them no funny business under my roof.”

Aaron cracked a slight grin. “You make it sound like they’re our kids.”

Dave chuckled. “It feels like it some days.” He groaned as he pulled his shirt off. “I’m beat. How was today?”

“Good.” He watched as Dave turned, arching a brow at him. He hoped his slight blush wasn’t visible in the lamplight. “Whose idea was all of this?”

“JJ’s.”

“Why?”

Rossi stood naked, pajama pants in his hand, as he thought about the best way to answer. “When you and Reid talked about Christmas memories, neither of you had stories like the rest of us. They put their heads together and decided the two of you needed a good memory. So, they came to me with the idea of giving both of you a first proper family Christmas.”

“Oh.” He hadn’t expected someone to do something like this for him. No one ever did things like this for him. He watched as Dave pulled on his sleepwear and tossed his clothes in the laundry hamper. When the older man pulled the covers back, Aaron finally got up and changed.

“I know Reid had a good time today, made a good memory. Did you?”

“Yeah. I did.”

“Better than whatever memories your father left you.” It was a statement, not a question. “But I’m guessing that doesn’t take a whole lot, does it?”

Aaron didn’t answer, instead he simply crawled into his side of the bed, thinking about the day before deciding that this was the kind of family Christmas he’d hoped for, surrounded by the people he loved, and who loved him, the most.

**Author's Note:**

> **Prompt:**
> 
>  
> 
>  
> 
>  
> 
> It's somebody's first Christmas somehow.
> 
> First time as a couple, with a kid, single again, properly celebrating, in a new house, after some big life-changing event... take your pick.


End file.
